Standardization News

Phil Kenul, chair of ASTM’s unmanned aircraft systems committee (F38) (front row, second from left) and Teresa Cendrowska, ASTM’s vice president, global cooperation (front row, third from left) met with officials from the Japanese Standards Association.

ASTM Global Cooperation VP Visits Korea and Japan

Teresa Cendrowska, ASTM’s vice president, global cooperation, and Phil Kenul, ASTM technical advisor for unmanned aircraft systems, met with several groups of standardization and industry officials during a trip to Japan and Korea in December. Beginning in Korea, Cendrowska and Kenul visited the Korean Standards Association (KSA) and joined in an information exchange and discussion during a KSA-ASTM joint roundtable.

The central topic of the discussion was global standardization pertaining to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), UAS traffic management (UTM), and advanced air mobility (AAM). ASTM and KSA are memorandum of cooperation partners.

Cendrowska and Kenul participated in an information exchange and discussion at the KSA-ASTM joint roundtable on global standardization transitioning from UAS to AAM.

While in Japan, Cendrowska and Kenul met with officials from the Japanese Standards Association (JSA) at their Tokyo headquarters.

The Japanese Standards Association (JSA, a longtime business partner in standardization) and ASTM share missions that recognize common tenets, including:

— standards are an important business tool to promote new technology and excellent products;

— the need for and benefits of multinational cooperation; and,

— standardization technology education to helps users implement standards.

While there, Cendrowska and Kenul shared updates specific to the UAS sector.

Cendrowska and Kenul also met with representatives from the Japanese UAS Industrial Drone Association, an MoC partner with ASTM.

During this meeting, both organizations provided updates on their respective engagement in the UAS/UTM sectors and discussed the role of ASTM standards in this quickly advancing industry.

At the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kenul provided an update on ASTM’s work in the aerospace and aviation sector for JAXA staff from the Aviation Integrations Innovation Hub, while Kenul and Cendrowska met virtually with staff from the Japan Civil Aviation Board.

ASTM Welcomes Ghana Standards Delegation

In December, ASTM International welcomed a delegation from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to its Washington, D.C., office.

During the visit, ASTM and GSA  signed a revised memorandum of understanding(MoU) (originally signed in 2007) to signal a new era in their cooperation efforts. Professor Alex Dodoo, director general, GSA, and Jeff Grove, vice president, global policy, cooperation and communication, signed the MoU.

Professor Alex Dodoo, director general, Ghana Standards Authority (left) and Jeff Grove, vice president, global policy, cooperation and communication (right), sign a revised MoU that updates the original, signed in 2007. Felix Charles Mills-Robertson, board chair, GSA (center), witnessed the signing.

Robotics Experts from Korea Visit ASTM Headquarters

On Dec. 9, Teresa Cendrowska, ASTM’s vice president, global cooperation, and Aaron Prather, ASTM’s director, robotics and autonomous systems programs, met with robotics experts from Korea at ASTM International headquarters in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Among topics discussed was further engagement and collaboration in ASTM’s robotics, automation, and autonomous systems committee (F45).

Shown: YoungMin Lee, Korea Association of Robot Industry (left);  SeungSub Oh (middle) and SeokJae Lee (right), both of the Korea Institute of Robotics and Technology Convergence; along with Cendrowska (foreground) and Prather (background, on screen).